Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of 54gene, a health technology company advancing the state of healthcare through large-scale discovery and translational research, advanced molecular diagnostics, and clinical programs for the benefit of Africans and the global population.
Education
Abasi Ene-Obong started his education in Nigeria, securing his O'level. He obtained his master's degree from Imperial College London on Human molecular genetics. He also bagged an MBA from Keck graduate institute on BioScience management.
He obtained a Ph.D. degree in Barts and the London school of medicine and dentistry focusing on Cancer Biology/medicine from the University of London. He worked in London for a while before returning to Nigeria.
Career
Abasi Ene-Obong started his career after his undergraduate school. He worked with the institute of psychiatry, king's College London as the honorary research associate from March 2009 to March 2010.
He got another work with Barts cancer institute London from October 2010 to March 2013 as their doctoral researcher.
Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong also worked with Panasonic as their strategic consultant, Gilead science as a consultant, IMS health as a research manager and consultant. He worked in these firms to gain extra knowledge of medicine his expertise.
He also worked as a cancer researcher and published a seminal paper on pancreatic cancer immunology, Gastroenterology Journal. He has extensive experience operating in the US, UK, and Nigerian healthcare industries.
Prior to 54gene, Dr. Ene-Obong worked with leading healthcare organizations, including Fortune 100 pharmaceutical companies, academic and research institutions, and governments as a management consultant with PwC and IQVIA (formerly QuintilesIMS). The company is working to ensure that Africa, a genetically diverse population, is adequately represented in drug discovery and other clinical research.
Founded in 2019, 54gene has made the Time Magazine list of 12 innovations that would change healthcare in the 2020s and has been listed by Nigeria’s Punch newspaper as 1 of 5 innovations that would improve healthcare for Africans.
54gene also made the Fast Company list of the world's Most Innovative Companies’ in 2020. It was also awarded the best health technology solution by AppsAfrica.
Dr. Ene-Obong was listed as 1 of the 30 most innovative entrepreneurs on the African continent in 2019 by Quartz Africa.
In September 2020, Dr. Ene-Obong was labelled a Nigerian hero in the fight against COVID-19, by a Nigerian newspaper, ThisDay. Dr. Ene-Obong is also included in Fortune’s 40 under 40 most influential people in healthcare for the year 2020.
Among other notable mentions, Dr. Ene-Obong has been recognised as one of Africa’s young innovators, one of Fortune’s 40 under 40 most influential people in healthcare and is a Bloomberg Catalyst in recognition of his contributions towards accelerating solutions to global health problems.
Abasi Ene-Obong is a seasoned business leader with extensive experience in the US, UK and Nigerian healthcare industries.
Resignation from 54gene
54gene’s General Counsel, Teresia L. Bost, took over as interim CEO. Dr. Ene-Obong also continued to support the company as Senior Advisor and remained on 54gene’s Board of Directors.
The announcement came barely one month after Ogochukwu Osifo, 54gene co-founder and vice president of engineering announced his departure from the company in a LinkedIn post. While no reason was given for the departure of Dr. Ene-Obong, Osifo explained in his post that he was leaving 54gene “to pursue other interests.” Osifo’s LinkedIn profile has been updated to include a new role as “Chief Executive Officer at Rayda”
How Dr Abasi Ene-Obong and Ini Dima- Okojie met.
Abasi Ene-Obong and his wife, actress Ini Dima-Okojie met in 2019 via Instagram. The actress has shared the interesting event that led to their meeting. Sometime in 2019, she was ranting on Instagram about not being able to find her favourite brand of chocolate (Maltesers) in Lagos.
That same day, she got a message from a guy in London sending her a bag full of Maltesers. The guy would later turn out to be Dr Abasi Ene-Obong. They later met in person and kickstarted a romantic relationship shortly after.
Dr Abasi Ene-Obong net worth
According to verifiable sources, Dr Abasi Ene-Obong has an estimated net worth of over $2 million. His company 54gene raised a whopping $25 million in investor funding in 2021, bringing their total funding since 2019 to $45 million.
Dr Abasi Ene-Obong founded 54gene in 2019. That same year, the company was named in Time Magazine's list of 12 innovations that would change healthcare and medicine in the 2020s.
